If Ernie Banks is Mr. Cub, Ron Santo was Mr. Snubbed.

The popular Chicago third baseman and broadcaster died Thursday from complications with bladder cancer. He was 70 years old.

He was never inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

And that’s a joke.

As happy as all Pirates fans were to see Bill Mazeroski get into the Hall — including myself — it’s a travesty that a guy with Santo’s credentials wasn’t already there.

Santo was the premier National League third baseman of his era in terms of consistency and production as a two-way player.

He hit 342 home runs, collected 1,331 RBI, had a career batting average of .277 and won five Gold Glove awards.

Longtime Cubs teammates Banks, Billy Williams and Ferguson Jenkins all made it to Cooperstown. Santo was as important to the Cubs as any of those guys.

Maybe commissioner Bud Selig and his cronies, including the Baseball Writers Association, can learn from this tragic omission.

Put Pete Rose in the Hall of Fame.

Do it next summer.

Santo suffered from diabetes to the point that both of his legs were amputated. He had 12 operations on his legs before that. He underwent surgery on his eyes, heart and bladder as well.

While Rose has never gone through such physical trials, he has suffered emotional humiliation from being denied his spot in Cooperstown.

Yes, Rose bet on baseball, a major no-no. He should have been punished for that and he has been.

He can’t work in baseball. He has been forced to stay away from the greatest passion of his life.

And he has been forced to watch from the sidelines as numerous players whose productivity he dwarfed join baseball immortality.

Rose turns 70 in April. Santo never got a chance to turn 71.

The man who collected more hits than anyone who played the game belongs in the Hall of Fame. That building never will be complete until his plaque is placed within it.

No one played baseball harder than Pete Rose. Few played the game harder than Ron Santo.

Even if Santo is enshrined next year, it won’t mean the same to his family because he won’t be there to see it.

That’s a mistake that can’t be taken back.

Allowing Rose to pass on without getting into Cooperstown is a mistake that still can be averted.

Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens deserve to get inducted when they become eligible, too, like them or not, whether they used steroids or not.

They were Hall of Fame caliber players and that’s what the Cooperstown is for: to recognize such talent forever.

Santo left this world on the outside looking in.

Learn from that mistake or, indeed, we shall be doomed to repeat it.

John Enrietto is sports editor of the Butler Eagle